Conference noted::bicycle

    
    Thanks for posting this sad news, Ed.  Are there addresses for
    sending condolences from the more remote people?  (I can find
    Rose Costin's if you don't have that one.)
    
    -john

    Currently Rose is at her Rochester address -- that's the
    address in UMCA.  (according to Ken DeLong)
    
    Rosemarie Costen
    403 Magee Ave
    Rochester, NY 14613
    
    I'll have Al's family's address later.
    
    ed
    
    
    
    
    
    services are on Hard Rock Rd in Westwood,
    I don't have any other information with me.
    
    ed

    
    re .0: I'm not sure his family "is requesting" people ride
    to the funeral, as I spoke with his mother yesterday evening.
    What she said is that it's okay with the family if you ride
    to the funeral and come in your bike clothes.
    
    Also, as far as riding to the funeral, there is a group of
    cyclists biking out from Boston together, starting at 9:30 AM
    from Jamie and Lindy King's house in West Roxbury.  I haven't
    been able to get through to the CRW bike line (617-325-BIKE)
    to see if there's info on their exact location, but feel free
    to send me mail if you'd like their personal phone number.
    
    re .2: Note that it's "High Rock", not "Hard Rock" in Westwood
    where the funeral home is.  "Services" are at the New Westwood
    Cemetery.
    
    The obit from this morning's Globe:
    
    Albert Lester-Of Westwood, June 7, killed in a bicycle/automobile
    accident, in Fulton County, NY, Albert B. Beloved son of Virginia
    (Bowen), and George N. Lester III of Westwood.  Brother of George N.
    Lester IV of Jamaica Plain.  Graveside service in the New Westwood
    Cemetery, Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.  Friends are cordially invited. 
    Visiting hours in the John F. Holden Westwood Funeral Home, 55 High
    Rock St. 9 (off Rte. 109), Westwood, Tuesday 2-4 and 7-9.  Donations
    may be sent to the Albert Lester Memorial Fund, American Youth Hostels
    Inc. 1020 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215.
    
    

    thanks.  I got the info "multi-handed"
    
    ed

					Edward G. Fisher
					813 Fox Hollow Dr
					Hudson, NH 03051-4861

					8 June 1992


	The Honorable Mario Cuomo
	State Capitol
	Albany, NY



	Dear Sir:

        Yesterday morning, June 7, 1992, two cycling friends, Al Lester of
        Westwood, Massachusetts, and Andy Spiller of Rochester, NY, were
        killed by underage drunk drivers in unrelated accidents while
        participating in a bicycle race in the Johnstown, N.Y., area.  I urge
        you to continue to encourage the legislature of the State of New York
        to strengthen existing drunk-driving statutes and to encourage the law
        enforcement authorities of the State to more strongly enforce the
        existing statutes.

        The Granite State Wheelmen is one of New England's largest bicycle
        clubs with over 1500 members.  Hundreds of our members as well as
        thousands of cyclists from around the nation visit New York to
        participate in tourist and race events and we are seriously concerned
        about safe usage of the highways of the state.


					Very truly yours,



					Edward G. Fisher, PhD
					President
    
    
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I always wonder whether letters will do any good, especially from out
    of state, but perhaps I can just be another loud voice in the crowd.
    
    Besides, what good is the "Power of the President" if I can't throw
    my weight around once in a while.
    
    ed

>>    I always wonder whether letters will do any good, especially from out
>>    of state, but perhaps I can just be another loud voice in the crowd.
    
>>    Besides, what good is the "Power of the President" if I can't throw
>>    my weight around once in a while.
    
	But you've got to keep on trying before we tragically lose others
  like this. No voice - no problem, seems to be the way these days. Out of
  respect to those that we have lost, we've got to keep at the authorities
  so that they can never, ever forget that there is a problem. Get letters
  from out of state, even if it only makes them realise that this problem
  doesn't get hidden from the public, that THEIR problem is highlighted
  throughout all the states. They soon realise that they are losing money
  and votes. It annoys me when we've got to measure the cost of lives on
  things so immaterial, but they're the only units that politicians can
  measure with, so we must fight with there rules.

	Keep at 'em Ed...

  Graham.

          

Ed,

Great Idea, sending a letter.

You might want to mention the GEAR August 7-10 in Canton, NY.

Hit em where they really care, when we drop a few bucks in their
state.

	~Mike

While I agree with Ed's letter and the need for continued efforts to solve
our nationwide drunk driving problems, I think me must look at what changes 
might be made in these ultra-marathon events to provide greater safety to
the riders.  (for those of you who don't know me, I am an experienced 
ultra-marathoner, with several 24-hr races and BMB qualifiers under my seat, 
er, belt)

The most glaring mistake most ultra race organizers make is the prohibition
of night-time follow vehicles.  Assuming that the Johnstown race still 
prohibits this (it did the two times I rode it) the following incidents have
all occurred under the same conditions (lone riders at night without follow 
vehicles that might have provided them some protection):

1985(?) RAAM - Wayne Phillips (the only unsupported rider ever) was hit at night 
by bit and run driver.  He's been a quadriplegic ever since.

1988 Johnstown 24-hr.  The women's leader was apparently hit by a car at night.
She suffered a broken leg and other injuries.

1992 Johnstown 24-hr.  Two killed at night in separate drunk-driving accidents.

I know of no serious incidents in ultra-marathon cycling that didn't occur
under these same circumstances.  There are numerous stories of lone riders being
harrassed or attacked by less-than-friendly people, usually drivers.

I wonder how many of these accidents could have been prevented by having
follow vehicles with the riders, especially at night.

True, bicycle-auto accidents happen all the time (I had my one-and-only last
October) and thus we always know that there is some risk involved.  But I 
think that night-time riding in an ultra-marathon setting (ie all night with
tired riders) is much too risky to do alone.  Even with the best of lights,
a lone rider is hard to see for even an unimpaired driver.

A follow vehicle provides these benefits:

1 - Visibilty.  This is paramount.  Follow vehicles in RAAM are required to 
have quite bright lights, and due to the slow speed, to drive with their
flashers on, thus the whole entourage is quite visible, from all directions.
The rider can also see the road better, and is much less likely to have 
problems with potholes, missing turns (corners), etc.

2 - Performance monitoring.  Tired riders don't always have the best judgment.
There are numerous stories in U-M cycling of riders hallucinating or falling
asleep on the bike and waking up in a ditch.  While the latter story is 
somewhat comical, other results could be tragic. (Pick anything else to hit
other than a ditch...)  The crew should monitor the rider's performance, and 
it s/he seems unable to maintain good control of the bike, it's time for a nap.

3 - Emergency help.  If the worst should occur, having your crew there could
mean the difference between life and death.  I'd equip the vehicles with CB's
or the like so they could contact the race organizers in an emergency to help
speed aid to a rider in need.

Undoubtedly, some will say that this takes some of the mystique away from U-M
events, and maybe they're right.  But I'd rather lose some of that than have
another rider injured or killed.

Follow vehicles can also pose some problems of their own, but I think those
can be dealt with in a reasonable way.

Waiting for the world to rid itself of drunk or abusive drivers (or those with
just poor judgment) is not the answer.  And it will never happen, anyway.

Comments?

Kevin

    Would the safety of an ultramarathon bike event be improved
    by a partial road closure?  There could a road block set up
    at the intersections where any traffic might enter the loop.

    The drivers would alerted to the fact that there will be tired
    cyclists ahead, and the drunken ones would be given a free ride
    down town.

    -Jeff

    
    

    	Kevin makes some good points. The only problem I see is
    	50 riders with 50 pace vehicles on a 42-mile loop course.
    	Pretty congested. Of course, if it were a large loop, like
    	TNT, it wouldn't be a problem.
    
    	Scott

Scott,

In my experience with night riding in 24-hr races and brevets, I found it
unusal to see other riders.  Thus congestion is not really a problem. This was
even true on 29m figure-8 with 13 and 16 mile loops.  There are exceptions, and
those must be dealt with.  For example, the BMB 400k brevet STARTS at night.  
If they feel they must start at this time, then follow vehicles might have to 
wait until the pack breaks up to join their riders.

RAAM must have a protocol for handling this problem at the start.  You were 
there Scott... what is it?

Kevin

    	Kevin,
    
    	I wasn't pacing until after the first time station at 80+ miles.
    
    	However, after the start, the riders rode together to some point
    	on the course (24 or so miles) where they could then move out
    	as they wished. I believe the pace vehicles could start pacing
    	them some time shortly after that.
    
    	RAAM riders can ride together for 15 minutes (no longer). Then,
    	they have to decide who will move on ahead.
    
    	Scott

    
    Kevin's remarks are well-put and he makes good points.  Accidents
    (or rather incidents?) like last Sunday's put shivers down the 
    spine of the ultramarathoner or anyone biking at night.
    
    At the risk of inviting misfortune, let me state two opposing aspects:
    
      - I did Capron (RAAM Open Midwest) in 1990 because I wanted to try
        out a RAAM qualifier.  Just try one out.  Why Capron?  Because
        it doesn't have PSV's.  If you require PSV's, then the rider must
        find 1-4 other people, to take maybe 4 days out of their schedule,
        plus equip a vehicle to make RAAM-like ready.  This is an expense
        and an imposition.  (I say 4 days - really 5 for me and Capron,
        one day's 15-hour drive each way, 1 day before the event to rest,
        and 48 hours to complete the 600 miles.)  If it had required a PSV
    	and crew, I might never have done it.
    
      - What about PBP (3000 riders in 1991)?  What about randon�es and 
        brevets, where group-riding encouraged?  What happens when BMB
    	gets into the 100's of riders?  There may be answers for these
    	situations, but something other than strict 1:1 PSV:cyclist, I think.
    
    -john (who in fact loved the *luxury* of having a PSV in RAAM)

    	Just an observation about this weekend:
    
    	I saw a number of riders who, shall I say, were of the
    	pedestrian sort. Not John Ellis' or John Stamstead's or
    	Ed Kross' or Linda Bousquet's. Just ordinary cyclists who
    	wanted to attempt 24 hours. Had they had to have support
    	vehicles on the road, they might not have been there.
    
    	Of course, had there been support vehicle, Al and Andy might
    	still be alive.
    
    	We passed one fella just before Johnstown who stayed in the
    	same motel as us. His crew - his 12 or 13 year old daughter.
    	She sat in her dad's car and studied for finals while he rode.
    
    	Scott

    Brief summary of events at the funeral.
    
    About 50 riders were among the 100 in attendance at the funeral.
    Obviously a large detachment of Charles River Wheelmen and AYH.
    (Al had been AYH President for 4 years.)
    
    Al's father pointed out that Al would have picked a day like this.
    
    ed

re: PSV's a barrier to participation.

Death is a greater barrier...

Seriously, I've thought about the barrier issue.  One solution I've come up 
with is to allow unsupported riders to participate, but during the night, they'd
have to ride with one of a number of race-org provided PSV's.  The org could 
provide one or two, riding/driving at different paces and unsupported riders would 
pick one to ride with, and stay with.  This does put them at a disadvantage to 
fully supported riders, but that's the rider's choice.  This is not unlike what
a lot of folks do during the night anyway... they ride in loosely defined groups,
opting for some company and safety vs. speed.  Those who really want to ride hard
nonstop would be the type to come with a crew, anyway (usually).

Another possible solution would be to only allow supported riders to ride thru
the night.  Is this not loosely equivalent to the AUDAX style of randonee?
You could have different categories for supported and unsupported
riders.  (This might also be a way to attract people to the sport.  It's much
less intimidating to ride only during the day.  Races like Johnstown that start
at noon and go to noon are ideally suited to this format, since there's about
equal daylight riding time on both days 

(12pm-8:30 Sat, 5:30-12pm Sun, tot=15 hrs.  Not exactly a 24hr, but it would
still be "how far can you ride in a 24hr period".  Some of us never rode much
at night anyway... and of course, some did!)

re: congestion.  

As the number of participants rise, at some point we might start having some 
congestion problems.  As I said before, I never really saw much of that.  If 
the course really became that crowded, it MIGHT be getting safe enough to do
away with PSV's.  I'd be quite happy to cross that bridge when I got to it.
100 riders doing BMB can't get congested.  3000 riders doing PBP undoubtedly
is, but I don't think that they have the same problems that we're talking about
here.

re: the earlier suggestion about closing courses.

That's never much of an option for anything other than professional races,
and they never close the roads for that long (9 hrs of darkness).  Ideal?
Yes.  Practical?  No.

Kevin

>re: the earlier suggestion about closing courses.
>That's never much of an option for anything other than professional races,
>and they never close the roads for that long (9 hrs of darkness).  Ideal?
>Yes.  Practical?  No.

What I really meant, was just for something that would alert the
drivers.  Perhaps just a quick chat to let them know that there's
a race going on.

I've never been to one of these, so I have no idea whether this is possible.
There might just be too many side roads that feed into the course
to be practical.

-Jeff

I assume that the course is signed to alert car-drivers? Of course, a drunken
teenage no-brain would probably ignore that. What about arranging for some
police presence at these events? 

Like .8 says, drunken drivers will always be with us. But we should remember 
that cycling still increases our life expectancy by making us more healthy,
despite the scare that incidents like this give us.


Rod 

    
    
    Re. Following vehicles
    
    	Can we really expect the race organiser to supply night time
    vehicles for the riders who are without support? That's a lot of money
    that is very hard to come by. Over here there is a 24-hr championship.
    Although as far as I know there are no restrictions to night-time
    convoys, most riders don't have anywhere near this kind of support.
    They have one car that goes on ahead to organise and prepare meals. To
    force a restriction on night-time riding would effectively kill this
    type of racing.
    
    	But before we get bogged down on what we can do to help ourselves,
    remember that the riders in this case did absolutely nothing wrong.
    They were the innocent victims of a couple of lunatics. The only thing
    that can prevent this happening again is not to force a whole load of
    restrictions on ourselves, but to re-educate teenage kids until they
    fully realise the consequences of these actions. Put harder penalties
    in place so that they are frightened out of doing it in the 1st place.
    I don't know what the penalty in America is for death through drunk
    driving but in Britain it's a joke. 2 years in prison and you had a
    judge on a bad day. Over here, it's regarded as the perfect murder.
    It's that mentality more than anything else that we need to change...
    
    Graham.

I agree with the sentiments entirely.  Stiff sentences are essential, but more
important is catching the offenders and making the charges stick.  Here in
France, the penalties can be quite severe but most loonies know that the chance
of being caught is small because the Police spend more time on soft jobs like
illegal parking and non-wearing of seatbelts in town.

That being said, there are signs that this is changing a bit - only recently a
guy was fined 30.000 francs and given 2 years in gaol (and that meant 2 years
in gaol, not 6 weeks with good conduct), and this week there was an unheard-of
step where the police and the prefet were on the side of the road and speeding
motorists got fined on the spot and the permits withdrawn at the same time.

Personally, if anyone was convicted of causing death from drunken driving, I
would take their licence away for ever, fine them 250,000 pounds and make
sure they paid it even it meant paying the rest of their life - this cash to be
given over to the victim's dependants rather than the authorities.  But then,
I've always been a reasonable person......

    I am trying to stay away from the soapbox-ish discussion that this
    topic can take but I will say that I've done 24 organized nightime
    events that I can remember and dozens more unorganized rides.  I
    think no-PSV is the way to go for anything but "babysit your racer"
    events like RAAM.
    
    As for their utility to Andy and Al, I think it is important to point
    out that PSV's would not have saved their lives in this case.  The
    murderous vehicles were coming from the other direction at high rates
    of speed and were already out of control when the cyclist became
    involved.  If there had been a PSV for Andy, the crew would have been
    killed also.  He was dragged 257 feet before the car hit an embankment
    and blew apart [with the engine and transmission landing on top of the
    driver's body].
    
    Oh, btw, I've always felt less safe when there were PSV's about.  They
    are always very focused on their own rider sometimes to the point of
    "not seeing" any other riders.  That's bad when they are also sleepy.
    
    ed
    

    I don't race, and I try not to be out riding after dark specifically 
    because I get that "bullseye on my back" feeling so this is a
    completely uninformed opinion:
    
    In this case it was a drunk driver, however there is always the
    possibility of someone who is simply tired, or ill, or just plain poor
    driver who is not very observant.  How many of us have driven a
    vehicle, and after arriving at the destination realize we can't
    remember the trip?  
    
    I think anything that can REASONABLY be done to improve rider safety,
    and make riders more visible to other vehicles at night is a good idea. 
    The important term is REASONABLE as I would hate to see things done to
    destroy or make the events inaccessible to all but a few well-supported
    riders.  So, are there things that can be done without huge cost or 
    inconvenience?

After hearing more details about this latest tragedy, I realize that PSV's 
wouldn't have helped, and probably only made matters worse (more people 
involved).  I still think PSV's are needed for point-to-point events like 
BMB and its brevets... but few others have ever agreed with me on this.

Other ideas:

Some other 24-hr races have had long daytime routes and very short nighttime
loops, where (hopefully) the situation, ie, traffic, could be controlled better.
Possible sites for such nighttime loops could be industrial parks (no night
shifts, please) a college campus, auto race tracks (cost an issue here)...

Mandatory downtime around closing time:
(Not my idea)  Would only somewhat lessen the danger.  Logistically a problem, 
since to be fair, everyone would have to spend at least a set minimum time 
off the bike, to maintain the order of the race as it was at the beginning
of the break.  Sort of like the yellow flag at car races...

Kevin

    From .3: Donations may be sent to the 
    
    Albert Lester Memorial Fund
    American Youth Hostels, Inc. 
    1020 Commonwealth Ave.
    Boston, MA 02215.
    
    and
    
    Andrew W. Spiller Memorial Fund
    c/o League of American Wheelmen
    Suite 120
    190 W. Ostend St.
    Baltimore, Maryland 21230
    

    	Copied without permission from VeloNews Volume 21, Number 16
    
    	============================================================
    
    	Charges Filed in Cyclist' Deaths
    
    	Dorothy Salvatore, 34, of Salisbury Center, New York, has been
    	charged with providing beer tothe 18-year-old who struck and
    	killed Andrew Spiller, a competitor in the Bud Light Challenge,
    	June 7. The youth, Jason Lamphere, was also killed in the
    	accident. According to an article in Albany's Times Union,
    	police are continuing the investigation, and additional arrests
    	are expected.
    
    	Another teenager, whose car struck and killed a second competitor
    	just an hour later in the same event, pleaded guilty to three
    	charges in the death of cyclist Al Lester. Gerald Hill, 18, was
    	charged with second-degree vehicular manslaughter and leaving
    	the scene of an accident (both felonies), and to a misdemeanor
    	charge of driving while intoxicated.

    Thanks for the report Scott.  Why does the press refer to 18 yr olds as
    "youths" especially 18 yr olds who kill.  It just bugs me.
    
    ed

    	RE: "youths"
    
    	I agree, Ed. Some of these "youths" are more "adult"
    	than many adults I've met.
    
    	Scott

     (Copied w/o permission from VeloNews, Volume 22, Number 3)



     Driver Sentenced in Ultra-marathon Death



     The motorist who struck and killed a rider during the Bud Light

     Challenge in Ephrata, New York, on June 7, 1992, was sentenced to

     one-and-a-third to four years in prison, on January 29, in Fulton

     County Court.  According to the Gloversville-Johnstown Leader-Herald,

     Gerald S.  Hill, 19, pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular

     manslaughter, driving while intoxicated, and leaving the scene of an

     accident, in regard to the collision that killed 31-year-old Albert

     Lester, of Westwood, Massachusetts.



     The accident occurred at 2 AM, when Hill' vehicle rounded a corner,

     crossed the center line, and struck Lester head-on.  (One hour

     earlier, another participant in the 24-hour race, Andrew Spiller, was

     killed when a vehicle, traveling at nearly 100 MPH, collided with him.

     The driver of that vehicle, who according to police, was also

     intoxicated, was killed in the accident.)



     Hill, who was 18 at the time of the accident, was granted youthful

     offender status, and the sentence was the maximum allowable sentence

     under youthful offender guidelines.  He was fined $350 for the DUI

     charge and had his license revoked; and was required to complete 300

     hours of community service after his parole, including giving speeches

     on drinking and driving in area schools.